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How to Complain – The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease

Finance

A U.S. riverboat deploying napalm during the V...
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Have you ever been screwed by a company?  Have they sent you the wrong item, or an empty box, or left your order backordered for so long that you can’t even dispute it with your credit card company any more?

What can you do?

I know you’ve heard the phrase, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.”  That means, he whines loudest, gets the most.  The thing is, you have to whine effectively, or you’ll just get round-filed.

Targeting Subsystems On

Who you complain to matters more than what you complain about.  The clerk at your local big-box retailer isn’t going to refund your online purchase.  You need to complain to someone who can make a decision to help you.   First, find the customer service email address.   Next, if you are complaining about a recurring service, find the retention department’s email address.  Finally, find the email address for absolutely everybody Vice-President or above for that company, including the board of directors.   Go to their website, find the email for some PR drone and figure out the format.  First.Last@Company.com or FirstInitial.LastName@Company.com or whatever.   Look up the company in Google Finance and translate everyone’s name into the email format.   You might not have the perfect list, but it should be close.

Target Locked On

Now that you know who you are about to blast, what are you going to say?   A few things to include are:

  • Your contact information.   If they can’t get back to you, they can’t make it up to you.
  • Details of the problem.  Include the date of purchase, date of delivery, and a detailed description of what actually went wrong.
  • Scanned copies of receipts.
  • Any names of anybody you’ve had to deal with, either in the original transaction or when the problem occurred, if you have the names.

Engage!

What to say, what to say?

  • Don’t be abusive.  It’s okay to be angry, and it’s okay to let them know your are angry, but swearing or threatening their lives will–at best–only get you ignored.  Worst case, threats are illegal and they can pass your email along to the police.
  • Stay brief.   It doesn’t matter that your daddy took you to Starbucks to use their free wi-fi when you were just three years old.   Don’t talk about that time the aliens abducted you or how sad you are that they never call like they promised they would.   Keep to the point.   “This is who I am.  This is what happened.  This is what I want you to do about it.”

Send that sucker out.   If you feeling particularly perturbed, send a CC to your state’s Attorney General and any possibly related regulatory agencies.   I tend to save this step for round 2.

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-19

Misc

  • RT @ScottATaylor: Get a Daily Summary of Your Friends’ Twitter Activity [FREE INVITES] http://bit.ly/4v9o7b #
  • Woo! Class is over and the girls are making me cookies. Life is good. #
  • RT @susantiner: RT @LenPenzo Tip of the Day: Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night. #
  • RT @ScottATaylor: Some of the United States’ most surprising statistics http://ff.im/-cPzMD #
  • RT @glassyeyes: 39DollarGlasses extends/EXPANDS disc. to $20/pair for the REST OF THE YEAR! http://is.gd/5lvmLThis is big news! Please RT! #
  • @LenPenzo @SusanTiner I couldn’t help it. That kicked over the giggle box. in reply to LenPenzo #
  • RT @copyblogger: You’ll never get there, because “there” keeps moving. Appreciate where you’re at, right now. #
  • Why am I expected to answer the phone, strictly because it’s ringing? #
  • RT: @WellHeeledBlog: Carnival of Personal Finance #235: Cinderella Edition http://bit.ly/7p4GNe #
  • 10 Things to do on a Cheap Vacation. https://liverealnow.net/aOEW #
  • RT this for chance to win $250 @WiseBread http://bit.ly/4t0sDu #
  • [Read more…] about Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-19

Brown Bagging Your Way to Savings

Finance

Today’s post is written by Mike Collins of http://savingmoneytoday.net as part of the Yakezie Blog Swap in which bloggers were asked to share their best day to day money saving tip.

Do you buy lunch at work every day?  Have you ever actually sat down and added up how much money you’re spending?

I did once…and I almost fell out of my chair when I saw how much I was spending!

Back in the day I used to buy lunch at the office almost every single day.  It certainly didn’t seem like I was spending much.  A chef salad here, a cheese steak and fries there.   But every day I was spending about 7 dollars and change.  That’s $35 a week, which adds up to a whopping $1820 over the course of a year!

I started thinking about all the things I could do with that extra $1820, like paying off some of our debt, increasing my 401k contributions(ed: but staying with your 401k contribution limits, of course!), picking out a new big-screen tv, or enjoying an extended family vacation at Walley World.

I immediately starting bringing my lunch to work 4 days a week (I do treat myself once a week) and I’ve been saving money ever since.

Now I know what you’re thinking.  It costs money to bring lunch from home too right?

Yes, of course it does…but nowhere near as much as eating out every day.  Let’s do some basic math to prove the point.  Say you swing by the grocery store to buy some ham and cheese so you can make sandwiches for the week.  You pick up a half pound of ham for $3 and a half pound of cheese for $2.  A loaf of bread on sale runs you another $2.  That means you just spent $7 for a week’s worth of lunches.  Even if you only bring lunch 4 days a week you’ve still saved yourself $21.  That’s over $1000 a year!

And here’s a tip to save even more:  If you have extra food from dinner, just bring the leftovers for lunch the next day.  We always try to make just a little bit extra so I can have free lunch the next day.

So the next time you’re sitting around complaining that you don’t have enough money for so and so, think about how much money you are spending every day on lunch, or coffee, or cigarettes, etc.  You might just find that you have plenty of money after all if you just shift your priorities a bit.

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How You’re Finding Me

Misc

Every once in a while, I like to dig through Google Analytics and see how  people are finding this site.   Some of the search terms are interesting.

“father of three” mid life crisis

Here’s a free piece of advice.  As a father of three, you don’t get to have a mid-life crisis.  It’s not allowed.  Rather, it’s allowed, but you aren’t allowed to act on it.   At a minimum, until your children are out of the house, you need to man up and provide all of the support you possibly can.  No sports cars you can’t afford and no 22 year old hardbodies.   Be there for your kids.

“payday loans” which accepts guest posts

Payday loan marketing.   Just go away.  You aren’t running a guest post here.

“slow carb” hungry all the time

You’re doing it wrong.  If you are hungry, eat more bacon.   Or beans.   Beans fill you up longer.

$1000000 business idea

Ideas are the easy part.  Execution makes you a millionaire.

articles on why appearance shouldn’t matter?

Appearances do matter, and always will.  Your appearance is what makes the initial impression when you meet someone new.  You don’t have to be a model, but basic grooming and fashion sense is necessary.   Take this with a grain of salt.  I’ve got a week’s growth of a beard and I wear a different plaid, button-down shirt every day.

are push ups supposed to be hard

Only the first 50.  After that, I kind of go on blissed-out autopilot.  If you can do 100 pushups, you can probably do 200.

acceptable place to put tattoo

If you wear clothes there, you can put a tattoo there.   Visible tattoos are called “job stoppers” for a reason.  If you put a tattoo on your face, the only job you qualify for is “drug dealer’s girlfriend”.   Or possibly prison janitor.

burning bridges with toxic people

If you must burn bridges, filling them with toxic people first isn’t a bad idea.

candied pork butt

Rule 34:  If it exists, there is porn of it.  Interesting side story: while double-checking the rule number, I stumbled across My Little Ponies doing things they never advertise on the box.

cut my wife’s hair

I did this once.   Pro tip:  In the back, at the bottom, cut small chunks and leave them longer than you think they should be.  You can always cut more, but uncutting hair is really hard.

f***** on the roadside by your mechanic

He probably deserves a tip for that.

girls fart for money and girls live farts

See the bit about the pork butt, remove the funny, and…ewww.

how to be a successful debtor

I recommend starting by paying your bills.  When the debts are gone, you win.  Success!

i ate bacon on slow carb diet

So did everyone else, sweetie.  It’s the biggest draw to the slow carb diet.

in memory of pets tattoos

When I get a pet, I get it with the understanding that I’m going to outlive it.   The day I bring it home, some small part of me is preparing for the day when I have to dig a hole in my backyard.   Tattooing that day?  Not gonna happen.

thickening felt behind testicle

Why are you on google?  Go to the doctor.  Please?

Interesting.  Between girls farting and my post about being well-trained, there is a significant amount of fetish traffic coming through here.  Maybe I need to explore a new advertising strategy.

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Carnival Roundup

Misc

I spent this week in my home town with my family: my parents, brothers, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, kids, uncles, aunts, and some cousins from Tennessee that I don’t see often.

In the evenings, after the kids were put to bed, we played Cards Against Humanity: A Party Game For Horrible People.

If you are a horrible, dirty-minded person, with a sense of humor that would make your grandmother blush–and you have friends to match–get this game.   Then play it where you can’t wake up the neighbors.   Seriously, it’s more fun than a super soaker filled with cat pee.

Live Real, Now was included in the following carnivals recently:

Yakezie Carnival hosted by Write and Get Paid

Carnival of Money Pros hosted by I Am 1 Percent

Carnival of Financial Camaraderie #39 hosted by My University Money

Carnival of Retirement #26 hosted by Write and Get Paid

Totally Money Carnival #72  hosted by MammaSaver

Festival of Frugality #342  hosted by Help Me to Save

Carnival of Money Pros hosted by Simple Finance Blog

Carnival of Financial Camaraderie #38 hosted by My University Money

Yakezie Carnival – Summer Vacation Edition hosted by One Cent at a Time

Carnival of Retirement #24 hosted by Making Sense of Cents

Yakezie Carnival – Arachnophobia Edition hosted by See Debt Run

Carnival of Money Pros hosted by Broke Professionals

Totally Money Carnival #70 hosted by Young Adult Finances

Yakezie Carnival – Sushi Edition  hosted by Free Ticket to Japan

Festival of Frugality #340 hosted by See Debt Run

Carnival of Money Pros hosted by Financial Product Reviews

Yakezie Carnival – Birthday Edition hosted by 20’s Finances

Festival of Frugality #339   hosted by The Frugal Toad (My post was chosen as an editor’s pick!)

Thanks for including my posts.

Get More Out of Live Real, Now

There are so many ways you can read and interact with this site.

You can subscribe by RSS and get the posts in your favorite news reader.  I prefer Google Reader.

You can subscribe by email and get, not only the posts delivered to your inbox, but occasional giveaways and tidbits not available elsewhere.

You can ‘Like’ LRN on Facebook.   Facebook gets more use than Google.  It can’t hurt to see what you want where you want.

You can follow LRN on Twitter.   This comes with some nearly-instant interaction.

You can send me an email, telling me what you liked, what you didn’t like, or what you’d like to see more(or less) of.   I promise to reply to any email that isn’t purely spam.

Have a great weekend!

Saturday Roundup – Happy New Year!

Misc

This week, my daycare provider has taken off to have surgery.   That means I have 10 days off in a row.  I haven’t done that since I was laid off at my last job, four years ago.  I’m really looking forward to the time with my brats.

Happy New Year!  Here’s hoping 2011 beats the pants off of 2010, no matter how 2010 went for you.

Best Posts

Free From Broke has a monster post with the best personal finance articles of the year.  If you need something to read….

Lifehacker posted about a service that will grade and critique your resume for free.  I’m not looking for a new job, but it looks like a great service.

Have you ever considered the similarities between hookers, doctors, and TSA agents?

Here’s an interesting analysis of the huge stimulus package that was supposed to revive the economy.  With all of the red tape and deadlines involved in getting the stimulus money, only projects that were going to happen anyway and already had permits and approval actually happened.   Private enterprise held off starting projects, hoping to get stimulus funding, only to find out they couldn’t possibly jump through the hoops in time, which is when they lost investors.   Huge fail with nothing accomplished beyond packing a ton of taxpayer money in a fat .gov bong and watching it go up in smoke.

LRN Timewarp

This is where I review the posts I wrote a year ago.

I wrote a post on the dangers of hypocrisy.   It’s a good post to re-read whenever I start feeling judgmental.

I also started my budget series.   Lesson 1 detailed my discretionary budget category.

Finally, I asked what you’ve done to improve your situation.  Every day, you can do something.  It may not be a big thing, but even small steps in the right direction will get you where you need to be.

Get More Out of Live Real, Now

There are so many ways you can read and interact with this site.

You can subscribe by RSS and get the posts in your favorite news reader.  I prefer Google Reader.

You can subscribe by email and get, not only the posts delivered to your inbox, but occasional giveaways and tidbits not available elsewhere.

You can ‘Like’ LRN on Facebook.   Facebook gets more use than Google.  It can’t hurt to see what you want where you want.

You can follow LRN on Twitter.   This comes with some nearly-instant interaction.

You can send me an email, telling me what you liked, what you didn’t like, or what you’d like to see more(or less) of.   I promise to reply to any email that isn’t purely spam.

That’s all for today.   Have a great weekend!